{"id":3470,"date":"2013-01-11T20:56:08","date_gmt":"2013-01-12T01:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=3470"},"modified":"2025-09-29T22:05:37","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T02:05:37","slug":"a-murder-is-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3470","title":{"rendered":"A Murder Is Announced"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Murder Is Announced<\/a><\/em> (1950) Agatha Christie<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>Next up on my Miss Marple reading binge was A Murder is Announced<\/em>. <\/p>\n

The residents of Chipping Cleghorn are startled when their weekly paper has a strange personal announcement: ‘A murder is announced and will take place on Friday October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6:30 p.m.’ And thus, the mystery begins.<\/p>\n

This one I vaguely remembered, so it was fun seeing the clues dropped here and there. But of course I also loved the bits and pieces of life in an English village after WWII. I knew there were (in the US as well) all kinds of shortages during the war, but I hadn’t thought about those shortages continuing after the war.<\/p>\n

“I suppose there was once heaps of coke and coal for everybody?” said Julia with the interest of one hearing about an unknown country.<\/p>\n

“Yes, and cheap, too.”<\/p>\n

“And anyone could go and buy as much as they wanted, without filling in anything, and there wasn’t any shortage? There was lots of it there?”<\/p>\n

“All kinds and qualities–and not all stones and slates like what we get nowadays.”<\/p>\n

“It must have been a wonderful world,” said Julia, with awe in her voice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think that passage there makes it quite clear what things were like. Almost as strange to consider from this point in history as the abundance was to those in the 40s and 50s.<\/p>\n

Of course, this seems just as alien:<\/p>\n

… They were people whose fathers and mothers and grandfathers and grandmothers, or whose aunts and uncles, had lived there before them. If somebody new came to live there, they brought letters of introduction, or they’d been in the same regiment or served in the same ship as someone there already. If anybody new–really a stranger–came, well, they stuck out–everybody wondered about them and didn’t rest until they found out.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Not the nosiness, but the small, close neighborhoods. How things change.<\/p>\n

And I loved this description of Miss Marple’s handwriting:<\/p>\n

“Writes just like my old grandmother,” he complained. “Spikey. Like a spider in the ink bottle, and all underlined.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, with my grandmother, it was The Palmer Method<\/a>, but still, it seems like there’s something about little old lady handwriting.
\nRating: 8.5\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Published by William Morrow<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Murder Is Announced (1950) Agatha Christie Next up on my Miss Marple reading binge was A Murder is Announced. The residents of Chipping Cleghorn are startled when their weekly paper has a strange personal announcement: ‘A murder is announced and will take place on Friday October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6:30 p.m.’ And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[191,30,668,190,48,33,8,291,41],"tags":[733,228,229,693],"class_list":["post-3470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-5-10","category-british","category-comfort-read","category-cozy","category-female","category-historical","category-mystery","category-paper","category-reread","tag-1950s","tag-agatha-christie","tag-miss-marple","tag-older-protagonist"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-TY","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12881,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/12881","url_meta":{"origin":3470,"position":0},"title":"A Murder Is Announced","author":"Michelle","date":"May 21, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"A Murder Is Announced (1950) Agatha Christie (Miss Marple) In Chipping Cleghorn, the local paper sports an unexpected advertisement: 'A murder is announced and will take place on Friday October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6:30 p.m.' One of the bits I found particularly amusing was where people slowly show\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"A Murder Is Announced","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Murder-Is-Announced.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":24631,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/24631","url_meta":{"origin":3470,"position":1},"title":"A Murder Is Announced","author":"Michelle","date":"June 1, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"A Murder Is Announced (1950) Agatha Christie (Miss Marple, #5) \u201cI do wish you wouldn\u2019t read that horrid paper, Edmund. Mrs. Finch doesn\u2019t like it at all.\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t see what my political views have to do with Mrs. Finch.\u201d \u201cAnd it isn\u2019t,\u201d pursued Mrs. Swettenham, \u201cas though you were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"A Murder Is Announced","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Murder-Is-Announced.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3450,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3450","url_meta":{"origin":3470,"position":2},"title":"The Murder at the Vicarage","author":"Michelle","date":"January 8, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Murder at the Vicarage (1930) Agatha Christie It's been years since I've read an Agatha Christie, but she's always been on of my favorites, and so I decided it was the perfect thing to read while I'm sick and feeling somewhat miserable. This is the first Miss Marple mystery,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Murder at the Vicarage","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/murder-at-vicarage.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12850,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/12850","url_meta":{"origin":3470,"position":3},"title":"The Murder at the Vicarage","author":"Michelle","date":"May 13, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The Murder at the Vicarage (1930) Agatha Christie (Miss Marple) I was listening to Read or Dead and they were talking about Agatha Christie's first book, which had been published in 1920--100 years earlier, and one of them mentioned her being a comfort read, and I was immediately, \"YES. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Murder at the Vicarage","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/The-Murder-at-the-Vicarage.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":21110,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/21110","url_meta":{"origin":3470,"position":4},"title":"Murder Is Announced","author":"Michelle","date":"May 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Murder Is Announced (1950) Agatha Christie (Miss Marple) A murder is announced and will take place on Friday, October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6: 30 p.m. Friends please accept this, the only intimation. This is post WWII story, and there are so many bits regarding that I love. \"You\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"A Murder Is Announced","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Murder-Is-Announced.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4902,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4902","url_meta":{"origin":3470,"position":5},"title":"Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories","author":"Michelle","date":"October 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories (2013) Agatha Christie From The Thirteen Problems (1953) The Tuesday Night Club The Idol House of Astarte Ingots of Gold The Bloodstained Pavement Motive v. Opportunity The Thumbmark of St. Peter The Blue Geranium The Companion The Four Suspects A Christmas Tragedy The Herb\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "10\/10"","block_context":{"text":"10\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/10-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Miss-Marple-The-Complete-Short-Stories","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Miss-Marple-The-Complete-Short-Stories.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3470\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}